It seems that these days people begin to bring up "identity" issue, claiming that I'm ...nese, esp for those who have left or fled the "original" community to another and use the "identity" as a tool to recognize themselves in the new group. I'm also surprised to see books written on Hakka cultures and trace its origins and "once glorious" history. What's the motive behind all these?

I grew up in a Hakka family. My family are from Meixian, the so-called capital of Hakka. It's true sometimes I'm flattered by it. I grew up listening to Hakka and used to speak it when I was young. Now I have moved to live in the States and came across this forum and found that I suddenly became a Hakkaese. Though I don't speak Hakkanese anymore, I go back to my hometown once a few years and well, the fact is even the people are speaking more and more Mandarin, esp the younger generation. It seems that the language is declining among its supposed heirs (like me) but is thriving among interested outsiders.

You are right there. My family are from Hong Kong. My parents still speak the Hakka dialect there, and I do still speak it with a funny accent (that's because I live in the UK). However, most of the Hakkas of my generation (ie. in their 20s) that I have met who come from HK only speak Cantonese. Indeed, some of them don't even know how to speak Hakka.

I can listen to bits and pieces when my dad talks to his friends in hakka. My mom isn't hakka, but cantonese. since i was small, both my parents talked to me in only cantonese. I don't know why, but I never identified myself as hakka, only as cantonese. i do this b/c nobody heard of hakka. Sometimes i feel ashamed of being hakka. my dad yelled at me one time, he said you are hakka, what is there to be ashamed of?! after that, it really got to me. I guess i started to have a identity crisis afterwards. I should be proud of my heritage. That was also when i started to dig up more info about hakka, and am trying to learn how to speak it. I am glad that I came to my senses. I wish that there were more people i could talk and learn hakka from besides my dad. that way, my hakka would progress evenmore.

From a linguistic point of view, Hakka is a language within the family of languages known as Chinese. Primarily, it is a spoken rather than a written language, since some common and most basic features of Hakka do not have characters used in other Chinese languages. As a spoken language, it can differ from region to region, so there are many dialects of Hakka, and dialects may also have regional accents too.

From a cultural point of view, it is hard to say. It is said Hakka moved to the south displacing the locals as they went, and in the process caused resentment against the newcomers. Such evidence of the movements are found in clan registers as folks who have done research into clan genealogies may tell us. For instance Lo Hsianglin's works in the 1930s. However, we find that not only Hakka but other dialect speakers currently in southern China has instances of similar migration across the ages. Migration cannot be a sole indicator of being Hakka.

The topic of Hakka identity is a difficult issue for those who feel that they fall between two different cultures. One way of deciding is to ask if one would like to identify oneself with Hakka people and language, and whether one's ancestors were speakers of the language as well.

Those who don't speak Hakka but identify themselves with the Hakka identity have the hardest position to overcome, basically, without the language, how does one prove that one is Hakka? How does one learn Hakka, when there is no one around able or willing to teach it?

I'm currently creating a dictionary of Hakka to address this problem. Hopefully, it will become a place where you can learn spoken Hakka (one form at least - that of my spoken dialect from Hong Kong) but not held back by the need to read Chinese characters.

I am Hakka and I grew up in Hongkong and educated both in Hongkong and in Canada. I must say that I previously had the same thoughts that both the Hakka and the Cantonese are just spoken languages/dialects. However, in the past few years, I came across a few articles and books that talk about the words/written form of the 2 respective dialects and amazed that to the contrary to what we commonly believe, there are proper written versions of Hakka and Cantonese although some are hard to trace (lost) now. It seems that in the process of change and development, the phonemes are altered to some extent but one may be able to trace back to its original (written) form.

I should be proud of my heritage. That was also when i started to dig up more info about hakka, and am trying to learn how to speak it. I am glad that I came to my senses. I wish that there were more people i could talk and learn hakka from besides my dad. that way, my hakka would progress evenmore.

i from MALAYSIA who speak in FUI CHEW HAK(hakka) when i was small till now and i can speak in cantonese, mandarin, hokkien,malay and thai also. when i was small, most of the old people speak traditional hakka ascents and year after year we now speak in a new way of hakka. we do mix some other chinesse language with hakka language for our daily use. anyway we still can find some old people who speak in a different traditional way hakka ascents from small village in MALAYSIA.some hakka language is very unique and beautiful to learn.and we do have a MALAYSIAN who sing a hakka funny songs( CHONG SAU LIM) and he are famous among our hakka chinesse people.